LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 19 



was illustrated in 1824, when the British government sent Lord 

 Byron, in the frigate Blonde, to the Sandwich and other islands. 

 What was the effect produced on the minds of the savages by the 

 presence of that ship 1 So firm was their impression that there 

 was no power on earth equal to the English, that the American 

 residents and traders in that quarter wrote to Commodore Hull, 

 then commanding the Pacific squadron, requesting that he would 

 send a frigate for the sole purpose of doing away or modifying the 

 feeling which the visit of the Blonde had produced ; and you may 

 lay your hand upon the evidence of this fact in the archives of 

 your department. Your predecessor sent the frigate Potomac to 

 Quallah-Battoo to chastise the Malays, whose hands were red 

 with the blood of our countrymen. Her presence on that coast, 

 I assert without fear of contradiction, made a more lasting im- 

 pression for good on the inhabitants than the appearance of a 

 dozen sloops-of-war could have done. Had you been then in of- 

 fice, the ghost of La Perouse * * * but I forbear. 



I presume you are not uninformed that the French have, prob- 

 ably, less than one tenth of our interest afloat in the North and 

 South Pacific Oceans ; and yet they have despatched three frigates 

 to these seas avowedly to protect and extend their trade and fish- 

 eries, and to subserve the purposes of science. The people of 

 this country, on the other hand, have the melancholy spectacle 

 presented to them of your efforts to cut down the first similar na- 

 tional expedition undertaken by this great republic, and that, too, 

 in the very face of a solemn law of the land ! 



I mentioned the name of La Perouse. The loss of his frigate 

 some half century or more ago has been a stereotyped argument 

 assumed by you and a few others against the employment of a 

 small thirty-six gun ship. But now the tables are turned ; for, if 

 the wreck of the ship alluded to be quoted as a precedent against 

 the employment of vessels of that class, it may be fully met by 

 the fact that France has since despatched three frigates into the 

 same seas ; thus leaving you no ground to stand upon, save your 

 paternal solicitude for the lives of those who may embark! 



Is it possible, at this late period of your life, with all your expe- 

 rience, and the opportunities you have had to expand your mind 

 in reflecting on and investigating the great concerns of nations, 

 you have still to be informed that, in case of a war between oui 



